


Validation

by raskin



Category: Almost Human
Genre: Angst, Bad Dreams, Comfort, Detectives, Friendship, Gen, Nightmares, Robot/Human Relationships, Shakespeare Quotations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-12
Updated: 2014-03-12
Packaged: 2018-01-15 12:36:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1305091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raskin/pseuds/raskin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Napping while on a stake-out, John has a disturbing dream.  It wasn’t an MX that he blew away, but a DRN.  His partner.   Dorian.  </p><p>As he listens to John recount the nightmare, Dorian finds that he is far, <i>far</i> from upset.  Because he hears something that tells him just how human John believes him to be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Validation

The stakeout was, as these things typically were, tedious and brain-numbing. 

John drifted off, his readings indicating full REM. He didn’t like to give in to fatigue, but Dorian willed him to slumber in the driver’s seat of the cruiser. It was better if the human was well rested. He was cantankerous enough even after a full night’s sleep. 

The warehouse they were assigned to watch was quiet. It was one of Paul’s cases, and they could have said no, but the little detective’s challenge was more than John could turn down, even after his own 12-hour shift. So there they sat.

When John began muttering in his sleep and rolling his head around on the backrest, that’s when Dorian became concerned. The man was scarfing down way too many pills, and humans were fragile, after all.

Then John called out, “Dorian!” His eyes flew open, and his breath came in deep, pained gasps. 

Dorian reached out, laid a hand on his forearm.

John jerked around at the touch, then breathed a huge sigh of relief. “Oh, God, Dorian. You’re here.”

“In the flesh.” One corner of his full mouth quirked up. “So to speak. Are you OK?”

“I will be…” John leaned his head back and closed his eyes, seemed to concentrate on his breathing, which eventually evened out.

“Wanna tell me about it?” Dorian’s question was casual, interested without being demanding. Apparently he got the mix right, because John was taking in a deep breath and preparing to speak.

“I dreamt I blew you away,” he said flatly.

“No kidding?” Dorian didn’t expect to figure into John’s dreams in any way, and was surprised. He didn't like like what he heard, of course. But he wasn’t alarmed, either. Not yet, not until John told him more. “Just how’d that happen?”

“Well,” John glanced over, eyes wide and haunted, “First, I sorta shoved you outa the car, under the wheels of a semi.”

Dorian had seen the replay of how John lost -- or gotten rid of, rather -- his first MX. Even Rudy hadn’t been able to put the android back together after it got rolling-pinned on the interstate. The first time he rode with John, he’d kept his seatbelt securely fastened and his door locked. “Ouch.”

“Then,” John gulped, “then, somehow you were back. You know how dreams are.” 

Dorian didn’t have the first idea what dreams were like. His knowledge of the distortions that the human mind could construct in sleep was purely academic. But he could appreciate that they could be surreal and confusing to those who woke up remembering.

“So there we were, at the train station. It was a crime scene. I was trying to figure out how the dude got nailed. You gave me a good reconstruction, how the bullet couldn’t’ve just ricocheted.”

Dorian recalled the case very easily. He’d later taken one of those smart bullets himself, meant for a young mother. 

“But that’s when it got weird. You started going on about how useless you were and how fucking crazy, and how I couldn’t trust anything you said. I told you to shut up, that that was bullshit, that you – ” John halted. 

Dorian remained silent, wanting to know just what John thought of him, but hesitant to interrupt.

“But you wouldn’t stop. Then you offered to trade yourself in, get me an MX for a partner. And so I pulled my gun and shot you in the face. Blew your head off.” John flung himself back against the headrest and squeezed his eyes shut. “God. There was blood everywhere.”

 _What the..._

“Dorian, I… Man, I’m so sorry.” John ran a hand over his face. “What if I… I might… I just don’t know if I can trust myself.”

Dorian tried not to laugh, not when John was so upset. He turned away, looked out the passenger side window. “Oh, I’ll risk it.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes, and then finally John chuckled sheepishly. “Yeah, all right, it was just a nightmare. But it was so real.” 

“So I gather.” 

“I’d never blow a hole in ya, right? I mean, you’d really have to piss me off to get me that mad. Right?” John clearly needed reassurance.

Dorian turned in his seat, and held John’s eye. He smiled, confident and calm. “You have nothing to worry about. You don’t see me the same as an MX, John, I’m positive.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Your dream gave it away, dumbass.”

John cocked his head, and gave him a crooked, skeptical smile. “Don’t tell me. You can interpret dreams, too?”

“Nope, not at all. I just know that you won’t shoot me because, for a cop, you sure are a pansy when it comes to the sight of blood.” His smile broadened. And he waited.

John’s brow furrowed, and his mouth formed a ‘w’. His eyes stayed on Dorian as he tried to decipher what he’d said. Then slowly, his forehead smoothed out and his mouth widened into a relieved, bemused grin. “For fuck’s sake.” 

“Yeah.” Dorian settled back in his seat, content. From somewhere in the database of his mind, a quote from a long-dead bard popped up. _If you prick us, do we not bleed?_


End file.
